24 — Sunday, February 23, 1992 - North Shore News

Tracking down the perfect living space

WE’RE MOVING house. Not literally, you under- stand, though the summer I was 18 we literally did just that.

Eleanor Godley

THE VINTAGE YEARS

It was a two-storeyed job my father had built when people were spilling into Fort George to be in at the bonanza the arrival of the

- CNR would create.

The family lived under canvas, on the banks of the Fraser River, until the house was habitable.

“Habitable”? in those days meant something pretty basic ~ there was, of course, no indoor plumbing, and also of course there was no basement, only a cellar hole, and the house was warmed by the kitchen range and the heater in the living room.

When it happened, whether be- fore or after I was born, I know

. not, but some time after incor- _ poration newly created reeves and aldermen drew lines on the map and left our house on the wrong side of the municipal boundary road,

We were occupying unorganized territory. The original left field.

- Advantages of one sort or another, enjoyed by our neighbors

NFB film

across the street, were thus unavailable to us. So the decision was made, 20 years later, to buy a lot across the boundary and up a block, there to prepare a concrete basement foundation with all those desirable ducts and pipes, and drag our house over to sit on top of it, like a broody hen.

Some drag! Great logs were laid down towards the chosen route, three teams of sturdy work-horses with feathery feet were hired, and with only muscle, levers and crow-bars the house was heaved up onto the first of the logs and pulled forward until the logs ran out. Then it was time to undo the horses, harness them to the logs behind, drag them around to the front and go at it again.

ft took most of three days, with occasional shuddering, to skid the house to its appointment. Mother and I stayed aboard, watching the

landscape move by at the pace of the well-known snail. No packing involved, no drapes to take down and rehang, just wave to neighbors as we inched past them.

The last hours were quite thrill- ing, engineering the swing around to face west after facing east for 20 years. The house settled finally, without too much jockeying, onto the prepared foundation, and mother and J put the glasses back on the shelves.

The new setting proved accept- able. A new vegetable garden was established, another woodpile, a wing was added to make a pro- tected garage. A good third of the lot was left undeveloped, en- couraging the birch in their beauty and the wild mushrooms in their succulence. The tast time | saw it, a couple of years ago, it had been painted yellow and looked like a comfortably settled matron.

the”

Since that time, I have sub- jected my own household to a succession of moves in what became a career in tracking down the perfect living-space. Except for a couple of real stinkers, the chosen living-spaces all proved perfect, for a certain span of time.

One’s psyche contracts and ex- pands, one’s inner visions bloom and wither, no place can possibly remain ideal.

Now, back in shallow water but on the far shores, one sees the perfect space as all on one floor, with mechanical means for de- scending from or mounting to. One eyes the multiplying excur- sions to the doctor, the dentist, the pharmacist, the everlasting need for comestibles and reading matter, and one's old trembling legs opt for flattish country.

Convenience becomes the over- riding criterion; a bus route or

‘SUNDAY MARCH. 15th, 1992 —

The Rotary Club of North Vancouver 555 Breoksbank Ave. North Vancouver V7J 3S5 980-DUCK

two will satisfy the urge to roam, in the day or dark of night.

Te be blunt, the move after this one is very probably via the pine box. How much better to make arrangements while one is still in charge, capable still of sifting through the inevitable accumula- tions, decisions of disposal made your own way, one’s banner plainly hollering ‘‘Simplify!’’

And that’s the key, simplifica- tion, achieved early by ascetics and back-packers but eluding so many of us with storage cup- boards, spare rooms, space under the stairs, garages, all the multiplication of hidey-holes we keep stuffing things into, because “*} may need that some day.”’

Amazing what surfaces when packing time comes around, and how it’s handled in one’s old age. I have to tell you as soon as I get a minute to reflect.

Overwaitea

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on life of cartoonist Len Norris scheduled

THE FERRY Building will be showing a short film prepared by the National Film Board Tuesday on ithe life and werk of Len Nor- ris, one. of Canada’s leading editorial cartoonists.

The film, narrated by Pierre Burton, chronicles the life of Nor- ris, which began in London, England in 1913, and his brilliant Career as an illustrator and edito- tial cartoonist that spanned four decades.

it coincides with the Ferry Building’s current exhibit of Nor- tis’ work.

‘After working as art editor and illustrator for several publications of MacLean Hunter Norris joined the Vancouver Sun, where he worked as editorial cartoonist for nearly 40 years. During that time he created some 8,000 cartoons.

_ The Norris film begins at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 25. The exhibit ccen- ‘inues until March 1.

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